Political Themes and Contexts in Ruskin's Works

But if you can fix some conception of a true human state of life to be striven for — life, good for all men, as
for yourselves; if you can determine some honest and simple order of existence; following those trodden
ways of wisdom, which are pleasantness, and seeking her quiet and withdrawn paths, which are peace;-
then, and so sanctifying wealth into "common wealth," all your art, your literature, your daily labors, your
domestic affection, and citizen's duty, will join and increase into one magnificent harmony. You will know
then how to build, well enough; you will build with stone well, but with flesh better; temples not made
with hands, but riveted of hearts; and that kind of marble, crimson-veined, is indeed eternal. — John Ruskin, "Traffic," 18.458)